Although this is clearly the equivalent of Cloudflare propaganda, they are trying to address the issue of connecting a user and an agent in a way that respects the users privacy.
They effectively use credentials and cryptography to link the two together in a zero-knowledge type of way. Real issue, although no one is clearly dying for this yet.
Real solution too, but blind credentials and Chaumian signing is equally naive to think it addresses the root issue. Something like Apple will step in to cast a liability shield over all parties and just continue to trap users into the Apple data ecosystem.
The right way to do this is to give the user sovereignty over their identity and usage such that platforms cater to users rather than the middle-men in-between. Harder than what Cloudflare probably wants to truly solve for.
Still, cool article even if a bit lengthy.
But, why do we want to tie the agent to the user’s identity?
The interface the user wants is “I pay for and obtain pizza”. The interface the pizzaria wants is “I obtain payment via credit card, and send a pizza to some physical location”.
It doesn’t matter who the agent that orders the pizza is acting on behalf of, or if there is an agent, or if some third party indexed the pizzaria menu, then some anarcho-crypto syndicate based in the White House decided to run an auction, and buy this particular pizza for this particular person.